How to Ride Switch Skateboard: The Ultimate Guide
how to ride switch skateboard

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If you feel like you’ve got the hang of skateboarding and you’re pretty good at doing all the basic tricks, you might consider trying switch skateboarding to improve your skills.

Instead of searching “how to ride switch skateboard” on Google for hours, we’ve summarized all the best tips for you. We’ll explain exactly what it is and how to practice switch skateboarding.

What Does Switch Skateboarding Mean?

Each skater has a preferred skating stance. Either you prefer your left foot in front (goofy stance) or your right foot in front (standard stance). You usually learn tricks for the first time in your preferred stance.

Switch skateboarding refers to skating in the opposite stance from how you usually ride. This adds an extra layer of complexity to skating, especially when doing tricks, as most people find it very difficult to do tricks in the switch position.

We refer to tricks in the switch stance by the same name and simply add a ‘switch’ in front. For example, a trick that most skaters can do is called “the ollie” or “the switch ollie.”

Why You Should Learn to Ride Switch Skateboard

Girl Learning to Ride Switch Skateboard

Switch skateboarding is a great way to improve your skating skills, especially if you feel that you are comfortable skating and doing tricks in your preferred stance. It’s a way to challenge yourself and your capabilities.

The more comfortable you get with riding switch, the more comfortable you will feel skateboarding.

If you’re thinking of skating professionally, you should be able to ride switch skateboard. All professional skaters can skate and do tricks in their switch position.

When you’re learning how to ride switch skateboard, you are forcing your brain to learn something it technically already knows. That’s why it can feel so frustrating when you don’t land a trick. But practice makes perfect!

How to Ride Switch

The only way to get good at switch skating is to practice. There are no secrets that can make you a pro in one night, but here are the basic steps to perfect your switch skating skills.

Start with the basics

Start with simply cruising around in the streets in your switch position. For most people, it is awkward to push with the opposite leg because it’s not what they are used to, but it gets easier the more you practice.

Another way to practice is by skating in your preferred stance and switching stances while moving. This forces your brain to switch quickly and it’s a great challenge.

Turning and kick-turning in your switch stance can be uncomfortable, which means you should also practice it often.

You can challenge yourself to only ride in your switch stance for one or two weeks (or longer if you can). This will help train your brain to get used to the opposite stance.

Once you are comfortable cruising, pushing, turning, and stopping in your switch stance, you can introduce a ramp. Make sure to wear a helmet when attempting to ride on ramps to prevent any injuries.

Move on to tricks

Man Doing Skateboard Tricks On Road

Now that you’re more acclimated to skating in your switch stance, you can start to attempt basic tricks.

When you’ve been doing tricks in your preferred stance for a long time, it becomes muscle memory and you won’t need to over-think the steps.

When you’re retraining these tricks in your switch stance, you have to go back to the basics. We’ve compiled a list of five basic skateboard tricks to start with and how to do them.

Ollie

Theollie involves snapping the tail end of your board to pop the front wheels off the ground, bringing the whole board into the air, and landing on your board again. It is the foundation of many other more advanced skateboard tricks, and arguably the easiest trick to learn.

Nollie

Thenollie (nose ollie) is essentially the opposite of the ollie. You snap the front end of your board to pop the tail wheels off the surface and bring the whole board into the air. This might be particularly difficult to do in your switch position, but don’t get discouraged.

Kickturn

Although we mentioned thekickturn as part of the basics, it is technically a skateboard trick. You use your back foot to press down on the board, lifting your front wheels. Move your body in the direction that you want to turn and place the front wheels back on the ground. This is usually done on a ramp, but it can be practiced on flat ground.

Frontside 180

Thefrontside 180 combines the ollie with a 180° turn. You snap the tail on the ground and rotate the board 180 degrees in the air before landing again. If you can successfully land an ollie in your switch position, it should be easy to land the frontside 180.

Backside 180

Thebackside 180 is just the opposite of a frontside 180. You snap the front wheels off the ground and rotate the board 180° in the air before landing again. If you’re comfortable with the frontside 180 in your switch position, this should be relatively easy.

These tricks might take time to learn again and, most importantly, they’ll take a lot of practice. It won’t always be easy but it is always rewarding to improve your skateboarding skills and become more comfortable on your board.

Conclusion

We hope this article has encouraged you to start practicing riding switch and to realize that it’s okay to not be perfect right out of the gate. Even legendary skateboarders like Andy Anderson had to start from scratch and be patient with themselves — if they could do it, so can you!

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